The present invention discloses a headrest for an infant or toddler. Doctors suggest that babies need some form of head support to maintain a supine position. This position helps keeps the air paths unobstructed, thus reducing the chances of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Until now, the headrests available were inadequate, bulky or contained contours around a baby's head, to prevent a “flat head” condition. These contours did not appear to account for a baby's restless nature as any shift of position by an infant would diminish the benefit of special contours and cutouts.
The present invention is a vast improvement over the prior art, since the headrest is thin enough for use by an infant, small enough to be placed in any crib or a child car seat, and soft enough to prevent flat headedness, as well as eliminating the need for head supporting contours.
Such a headrest may appear to be a simple item to design, but to make one that is light weight and performs its function well, requires ingenuity and a fair knowledge of appropriate material properties.
A comfortable support requires several, seemingly contradictory components. The support material must be soft—but firm. That is, the material must be soft enough that the infant's head will sink in and spread the support over as much of the head as possible, both for comfort and stability. But the support must also provide sufficient resistance when deformed so that a reasonable thickness of material can be used without the head sinking right through to any underlying hard surface. And, though the support material must deform rapidly to adjust to the shape of the head, when the head is moved, the support material must recover rapidly to its original thickness and shape.
A relevant property of padding materials is the pressure they support when compressed to half their original thickness. An average 1 year old infant weighs about 20 lbs, about a quarter of which is accounted for by their head. The 5 pound head should be supported over an area of the head of about 1.5 to 2 square inches, so that a support of between 2.5 to 3.5 psi (pounds/square inch) is required.
However, fleece, for instance, exerts a pressure of only 0.75 psi (pounds per square inch) when compressed to 50% of it's original thickness, so a fleece support would have to be about six inches thick to prevent the infant's head sinking through the support and resting on the underlying hard mattress or other support surface.
Foams, such as polyurethane foams, sometimes referred to as “Memory Foams”, are firmer, but still not supportive enough for a comfortable pillow of reasonable dimensions as they only exert pressures of about 1.8 psi at 50% compression.
Silicone rubber, on the other hand, exerts a pressure of about 5-10 psi at only 25% compression, and would, therefore, be too hard to provide a comfortable support. Even soft natural rubber exerts a pressure of about 3 psi at 25% compression and, therefore, would not deform enough to spread the load sufficiently to make a comfortable pillow.
What is required is a suitable material that has the right balance of firmness and deformation to provide cushioning and support, while keeping the size thickness of the invention to a minimum. Suitable visco-elastic gel materials are available that address medicinal or therapeutic needs for elevating heels and elbows, or as cushioning to safeguard limbs from possible injury. However, the need for thin compact pillows for infants has not yet been adequately addressed.
The present invention addresses this unmet need by providing a headrest which incorporates a suitably selected visco-elastic gel in an appropriate packaging so that it is thin enough for use by an infant, small enough to be placed in any crib or a child car seat, and soft enough to prevent flat headedness.
Known prior art headrests include U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,052,820; 6,321,403; 6,536,058; and U.S. Patent Application No. 20060096031.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,052,820 discloses a support device for newborns, including premature babies, comprising a doughnut-shaped structure having a gel-filled GORE-TEX casing of about five to six inches outer diameter with a central aperture of about two to three inches in diameter. The structure provides an annular tube having about a 1 to 2 inch diameter. The tube is preferably circular in cross-section at the rear or head region and preferably flattened to provide a generally oval cross-section at the front or neck region. The case is filled with a cohesive gel mass such as silicone gel or silicone elastomers with sufficiently cross-linked polysiloxane networks to substantially retain a selected shape despite the force of a limited incident weight.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,321,403 discloses a support pillow for supporting a head or a person when in a supine position comprises a cushion member having a support region at least partially surrounding a pressure relief region. The support region is configured to support at least a portion of a head, and the pressure relief region is configured to receive at least a portion of a back side of the head such that pressure applied to the back side of the head is reduced when lying in a supine position.
The U.S. Pat. No. 6,536,058 describes a headrest device for holding the neck and head of infants to assist the development of the shape of their skull. The device includes a base, the outside contour of which is concave for holding the head and designed according to the measurement of the average of different head shapes of normal newborn babies. A depressed segment of the base is used to support the infant's typically weak neck. A removable supplement and a direct-contact piece are included as well in this headrest device.
The U.S. Patent Application No. 20060096031 discloses a baby sleeping cushion and method of use thereof, wherein the cushion is wedge-shaped and comprises two principal layers, a top layer and a bottom layer. The bottom high-density foam provides a firm backing or support and the selected elevation from head end to foot end. The visco-elastic or memory foam top layer molds to the body form of a baby, retarding lateral movement of the baby, and preventing the baby from rolling from side-to-side. In addition to the two-layer wedge-shaped cushion, a separate cushioning device, generally hemispherical in shape, is removably secured to the wedge-shaped cushion, and supports the baby's legs and buttocks; thereby preventing movement of the baby in response to the inclined slope of the wedge-shaped cushion. An additional embodiment provides a support pillow to restrain the baby's head from movement removably-secured to the wedge-shaped cushion.
All of the patents above disclose specialized contraptions that address a specific problem in the art of baby headrests. The present invention, however, aims to remedy all of the problems with a single solution by using a specialized gel filling made from Akton®, which is a polymer that is soft yet supportive, providing a comfortable level of elevation for babies and toddlers. Nor does the present invention require specialized grooves and cutouts to prevent a “flat head” condition since the filler and the overall shape and size of the invention will provide ample support in spots where it is needed most.
Various implements are known in the art, but fail to address all of the problems solved by the invention described herein. One embodiment of this invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings and will be described in more detail herein below.